Tailspin45

Got it! Forwarded to Chuck, and awaiting his response. I think he's a one finger typer, so his reply may be cryptic, so don't be disappointed if we don't get much in return. In any event, if you don't have the details you need I'd be happy to drive over and take closeups of anything you want.

I'd be happy to do that. Send me a three view shot or the skin and I'll get his input.

$hit hot! When will Six Shooter be available? Chuck Hall, the owner writes, "Very cool Tom......I love it! Thanks, you've really got me interested in all this."

Is there a way, presumably in the mission editor, to change certain characteristics of the AI aircraft, such as their lights. More to the point here, is there a way to specify where they spawn, or their route to the departure end? I have a flight of four that inexplicably has one aircraft in a revetment across the field. He takes the long way around, meanwhile Lead takes off and the other two just sit there. Lousy flight integrity that!

Saw two F4s doing that out of Fallon on an Alpha strike...except the wingie broke into Lead. Lotta smoke, no noise. Not one word after about who or why. Didn't even check the paper to see if they carried anything on it. Another of the surreal, inexplicable, imagines from back then.

Mine too. With a well modeled DIANE system it would be a hoot to fly high loft and over the shoulder deliveries. And I'd enjoy challenging the Air Force Warthog pukes to a bomb CEP contest. Anyone have a barrel? Carrier ops, too, of course.

Who needs a pilot? Just give me an AI pilot and I'll be happy in the back. Real ones just like to sing, " I did it my way" but won't Falcon 144.

He wasn't there when we were based there. I think he was at North Phily or maybe even over in NJ someplace. Which reminds me, and it almost brings tears to my eyes to recall it, one of my most memorable aviation experiences was Jim and Ed dogfighting overhead, going at it hammer and tongs, from the sounds of things. I looked in vain to find them above the scattered clouds, but finally just closed my eyes and listened...and wondered how many others had heard that sound and under what circumstances. It was like listening to a requiem for the musicians from many nations who died while creating beautiful music. Which (oddly) reminds me, I had once before heard the sound of a Merlin used like that, but no game, it was applied in anger. I was only 10, standing on a street corner in San Jose, Costa Rica, outside the Pan American Airlines office. Dad was inside buying tickets to Guatemala (he was a missionary, but there are many stories that read like CIA hi-jinks) and Mom and I were waiting outside. I heard the unmistakable tune of a Merlin, saw the equally unmistakable silhouette of a Mustang, and was startled when the front of a government building across the street erupted in shards of glass and concrete dust. People stopped, looked and just kept walking. It was surreal, in slow motion. The aircraft (Honduranian we later found out) was strafing the building! With real bullets! "P-51 Cadillac of The Skies!" hadn't been coined yet, but that was close to what I was thinking. Mom ducked, pushed me behind her, and I desperately fought to see around her skirts. I'd memorized ever detail in the 1954 edition of "Aircraft of The World," and I didn't want to miss a second of my own private demonstration of WW2 aircraft in action! Which, since I'm waxing nostalgic, and we're already way off thread, reminds me of a tale my Dad told me of a similar striking sound, never forgotten. He was in New Guinea somewhere, standing in a line amidst tents and jeeps and dirt and heat and the smell of latrines, where they burned the shit to get rid of it, so he could get his ration of cigarettes (he didn't smoke—mesothelioma from Navy shipyard asbestos where he worked as a teenager killed him instead—but the butts were valuable for trading), and he heard a crescendo of inline engines winding up. Looking up, he saw a P-38 arcing down, down, down out of the Air Corps burning blue, and watched it plow headlong into the line of men ahead of him, killing dozens of them. He told the story in a matter of fact way, as you do when years wear off painful reality, but he was so casual about the story I almost wondered if it was true. Years, lives, pass. I'm sitting on the patio of a hotel on Maui eating brunch with my new (pilot) wife, and a fellow at a neighboring table comments on my warbird Hawaiian shirt. Says he flew A-20s in the Pacific. I said, really, New Guinea, my dad was in Nadzab? He said, yeah, I was there, watched a P-38 plow into a line of guys who were waiting for cigarettes, Lucky I didn't smoke! Asked his name and email, never found it when we got home.

Since I'm recalling fond history, you may be interested to know that Shipley started out at Chester County Airport (40N) west of Philadelphia. When our flightseeing business was just one 1929 Travel Air biplane we roosted there, too, until the weather forced us to move to San Diego. If I remember correctly he learned to fly in a T6 that he bought before he could fly it. It wasn't long until he built his own hangar and dressed it with an immaculate P-51 and an American Flag so huge he asked the local fire department to bring their ladder truck to help him hang it. It also had a sound system that would easily make it seem like a P-51 was flying through the hangar when he cranked it up to support video he played on the first flat screen TV I'd ever seen. He was (is?) in the video business, so he put together an awesome flick combining WW2 footage with film and video taken while his aircraft was being restored, including the first flight. Sure wish it was on YouTube because it had some wonderful shots of the bird when it was just pieces, and was a lovely combination of sights and sounds old and new. We moved West, and our paths crossed again when he flew his Corsair off a carrier as part of the Pearl Harbor commemoration events in 2001. There are some shots of him with an F/A-18 flying on his wing, and one of them is hanging on my wall here in the office, given to me by the Hornet pilot, who flew air combat for us in his time off. We ended up with the largest and oldest such flying business in the US after 16 years, but sold it in 2006 as the economic crisis loomed. Meanwhile Ed started the Six of Diamonds, decided he wanted to fly something really big and got a 747 type rating and then a job with Atlas just for the challenge in it...and you undoubtedly know the rest of his incredible success story. Makes what we acheived seem like an amateur effort. Gonna take some digging, but I think I have some pictures of him in his first T6. If I do I'll add it here someplace, for nostalgia sake.

I took the pilot of Wee Willie (the first) for a ride in our SNJ-4. He was an active flight instructor at our field (KCRQ), but it had been a while since he'd flown anything bigger than a Citabria. But he hadn't forgotten anything, and showed me a thing or two! You'll find a short tribute to Calvert ("Lowell") Williams, some details about flying a '51 we don't have to worry about thanks to the Pause button, and even a couple of signs in the background for our biplane, warbird, and air combat business at http://www.michaelmccafferty.com/Lowell.htm Lowell shot down an Me-109, the first victory for the famous 357th on 20 February 1944 flying P-51B 43-6448 (G4-U Wee Willie). http://www.spitfireperformance.com/mustang/combat-reports/357-williams-24april44.jpg Lowell was one of the orginal "Yoxford Boys" at Leiston Air Field, and also had a confirmed ME-262 kill. He was strafing an airfield in Wee Willie when he saw a 262 taking off and shot it down right after take off. If I remember correctly he had a total of 4 victories to his credit. Lots more 357th stuff at http://www.cebudanderson.com/

Close Air Support P-51 iMovie template and some scraps of video. Will have to try again with some purpose-shot footage.

You're right, radial engines are pulled through by hand to ensure that lower cylinders do not have a hydraulic lock. It does also spread some oil on cylinder walls, but that's not the real reason they're pulled through by hand--it's the hydraulic you worry about. If oil leaks down into a lower cylinder you can bend a connecting rod when the piston tries to compress uncompressible liquid. The starters have clutches that are supposed to prevent this, but I personally know of three engine failures in flight caused by rods that were bent by oil in the cylinder on start. In fact, you can evn bend a rod when you're pulling a prop through by hand, if you aren't careful. If a cylinder has a hard resistance, pull a plug and let the oil drain out. But be careful or you'll get face full of oil if you don't release the compression first! Early Wrights(J4, J5 etc) often had valves installed in the lower oil gallery so it was easy to drain the oil from the combustion chamber every morning or after a prolonged rest. They were loose engines and prone to hydraulic lock. BTW,WW1 rotary engines (as distinct from radial engines) don't have a lubrication system, because the cylinders turn and the crank is fastened to the airframe. The oil (castor oil usually) is in the fuel. Rotary engines don't have a throttle for the same reason--everything is turning. They have a blip switch to kill the engine for ground use and landing. This is all modeled beautifully in the exquisite Rise Of Flight sim.

Regardless of what or why, I'm embarrassed for the devs by it. They've created a masterpiece by any standard, but it has a clear flaw. There's nothing about an engine on a test stand, sitting a hangar, starting up, sucking fuel from a can that is evidence that such occurs in a real aircraft in flight. The fact that the sim may faithfully represent every exhaust stroke is amazing, but there's no way I'd send a FRAPS vid to a Mustang owner with this obvious toy-like visual. I have several friends that fly '51s, and I want to brag about this otherwise amazing piece of work. But i won't send them any video with this anomaly. Until we all have computers that can produce frame rates in the hundreds what exactly is the point, and why are people eager to defend it? Update: discovered that wingmen don't have this flaw.

You've had your hands in some very intimate places for someone who claims inexperience, my friend... (More Su Su 2 here).

Not to be a curmudgeon, but I maintain that all these contortions are necessary only because something isn't right with the flight/ground handling model.

Good news, the pilot is available at http://www.lockonfiles.com/index.php/topic/37535-dcs-p-51d-enable-pilot-and-fov-mod/ Bad news is he covers fuel gauges and left sub-panel, and wears a modern brain bucket and flight suit. Good news is he has a kneeboard. WildBill: Falcon 118, man. Falcon 118

Here's a dilly: http://www.spitfireperformance.com/mustang/combat-reports/20-nicholson-25feb45.jpg "He was now turning to the left and I gave him a 2 second burst from 150 yards observing strikes along the engine. The enemy plane was smoking and pieces were flying off. I pulled up almost alongside the E/A, the pilot waived (sic), pulled himself out of the cockpit with one arm, the other hanging by his side. He went over the back hitting the vertical stabilizer as he went by. This pilot was the biggest and fattest (possibly Goering) flyer I have ever seen."

\DCS World\Scripts\Aircrafts\ should be \DCS World\Scripts\Aircraft\ (plural of aircraft is, oddly, aircraft)

After flying under the two bridges nothing happens. Mission doesn't end so I can't continue campaign.

Yup, T-28. Waukegan Michigan Air Show 2007 The Heritage Formation shown here featured aircraft built by North American Aviation and all but the P-51 owned by the Warbird Heritage Foundation. Flying the lead plane, a T-28 Trojan, is Ralph Glasser; flying the F-86 Sabre is Steve Kirik; flying the T-2 Buckeye is Paul Wood; and flying his P-51 Mustang is Vlado Lenoch, the photo ship for the video.

A cursory search didn't find a link to these here, but anyone interested in the DCS P-51 will undoubtedly enjoy reading the first-hand reports from Mustang pilots, officially called "encounter reports" so I'll post a link here at the risk of creating a duplicate thread. You can read the details of encounters, word for word, from JPEGs of the actual typewritten reports: 1st Lt. Charles E. Yeager, 12 October 1944, 357th FG Five (5) Me 109's destroyed Capt Thomas P. Farrell, 5 December 1944, 364th FG "At 8,000 feet while still going straight down indicating above 650 mph, I had to trim the a/c out of the dive. The e/a went straight into the ground and exploded." 1st Lt. Robert O. Peters, 20 July 1944, 355th FG Five (5) destroyed. "I was flying YF-S, a P-51 B5 equipped with a new K-14 sight. The sight was perfect and so easy to use in combat that I was amazed. The accuracy was perfect as it always showed hits at the point of aim. Without it I probably would have barely damaged one or two E/A. The sight is a miracle. I had only had one hour practice on it before." 1st Lt. James F. Hinchey, 14 November 1944, 353rd FG “For fifteen minutes at 74” hg and indicating 600 mph…” Lots more at http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/mustang/combat-reports.html I know (knew, sadly) and have flown with a couple of these pilots and have to say, reading their words from almost three quarters of a century ago is very spooky.

A-HA! Now I can have my abbreviated checklist and frequency card where it belongs! Probably ought to add the Falcon codes too.

Mission 9 (bridges) no ending trigger? After last bridge no triggered message so i flew around for a while thinking I'd missed gate or didn't see next one, but seems it just leaves you hanging

Gates not at specified altitude Mission 8 - Gate 6 (I think) is supposed to be at FL220, but is actually at 15,000 (using 29.92) Every time the guy gives headings such as "twenty two degrees" instead of "zero two two" it sounds silly. Later he says correctly the heading is one zero zero. Re-record? Next gate is 024 for 22 and is supposed to be at FL250 but is at 20,000. Next gate at 100 for 20 is at FL295, not 30,000 as a stated 051 for 19 is at FL200 as stated. Destination is hidden by 6000 undercast but no approach is offered. Trim and rudder pedals inop in this mission, but work OK in one before and one after.

In mission six (which we're led to believe is about navigation, but is really about aircraft handling) after gate four the voice says the gate it's straight ahead, but it's 45 right. After gate five the voice says it's off to the right, but its straight ahead. Gate 11 is half buried in the dirt, but there's no comment, yet we're cautioned about the next one which is full size, simply low over the water and much easier to hit. Says gate 14 is off to the left, but is straight ahead.